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LAW OF THE LINKS 

Rules, Principles and 
Etiquette of Golf 



By HAY CHAPMAN ^ 

Editor of the 
Pacific Golf and Motor and 

Golf Editor of 
the San Francisco Chronicle 



Copyright Applied For 

SAN FRANCISCO 

December 

1922 



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To WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 

Chief Justice of the United States 

IN dedicating this little book to your honored self I 
am reflecting the conviction of the world of golf 
that no citizen of the United States has lent greater 
distinction to the Eoyal and Ancient game than your- 
self. Many great lawyers play golf but, perhaps, few 
of them have studied its code. During the recent con- 
vention of the American Bar Association it was sug- 
gested in the columns of the San Francisco Chronicle 
that a commission be appointed by the barristers to 
simplify and unify the complex code under which the 
game is played in all quarters of the world. This, of 
course, was written in jest, but it would be a signal 
service to the United States Golf Association, possibly 
to its older and very venerable brother, the Eoyal and 
Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, if some such sug- 
gestion were followed. Too many laws — with some of 
them apparently contradictory — court transgTession 
and invite dispute, if not eventually breeding contempt 
and anarchy. The following pages are merely the re- 
flections of a layman with thirty years of golf behind 
him on both sides of the Atlantic, written in the belief 
that while the great army of golfers generally refuse 
to read The Rules of Golf in their rigid and brain- 
taxing form, some at least of them may incline them- 
selves to a brief dissertation on the practice and ap- 
plication of these laws. These brief homilies were 
published originally in the San Francisco Chronicle, 
and it is in response to many requests that they be 
committed to more permanent form that the contents 
have been put between covers. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Virtue of the Fundamental Principle to 
Play the Ball as it Lies 

CERTAIN notable incidents in competition 
recently have brought up golfers with a 
sharp turn as to the wisdom and importance 
of knowing the rules of golf and practicing 
them rigidly. 

In the final of the Canadian amateur cham- 
pionship of 1922, there was an indecent demons- 
tration against a referee because the gallery 
was ignorant of the rule which prevents a 
player from lifting ' ' a loose impediment ' ' more 
than a club 's length from his ball. In this case 
it was a cigarette box — it might even have 
been a single cigarette — which Fraser thought- 
lessly lifted before playing his ball, not on the 
putting green. The decision on this occasion 
caused a big commotion among the gallery, and 
the demonstration so ''rattled" Eraser's op- 
ponent that, after being dormie, he lost the 
match and the championship. 

Even in the United States national open 



30 LAW OF THE LINKS 

championship this same year, the bugbear of 
ignorance of the rules uplifted its ugly head. 
A well-known professional succumbec^ to the 
sheer ignorance of the marker who permitted 
him to drop out of a hazard in which there was 
water, without penalty. 

There is no excuse for such ignorance among 
professionals or those who undertake the duties 
of marking or refereeing. 

The only prescription against such contre- 
temps or misdemeanor is knowledge of the 
rules; but it is notorious that the great major- 
ity of players — two or three million of them 
in the United States today — have never read 
the rules. Yet almost any manufacturer or 
dealer in sporting goods will furnish copies of 
the code for about 10 cents or gratis. Why 
don't golfers know the rules of golf? 

We will all agree that any game worth play- 
ing at all is worth playing according to the 
rules. It is easy enough to degrade any game 
by wilfully ignoring the code. In the days of 
our grandfathers croquet fell into utter dis- 
repute because the ladies would not "play 
fair," and cheating was thought innocent 
enough. 

Stray to any corner lot of any large city in 



LAW OF THE LINKS 11 

the United States where you are fairly sure to 
find a gang of boys playing baseball. They 
know every rule of the game, and woe betide 
any youngster who attempts to ''get away" 
with a breach of the well-known laws ! 

There is a noisy atmosphere about baseball, 
and a referee is not so sacrosanct a personality 
on the diamond as on the links. Noise is, or 
should be, a foreign substance to the links. 
The rulings of a referee are never countered on 
a golf course with gingerbeer bottles, although 
acrimonious criticisms may be heard around 
the nineteenth hole. Coincidence of a player's 
foot at a base and another player's handling 
of the ball makes many people see things dif- 
ferently on the diamond ; there is no such race 
between hand, ball and foot on the links ; hence 
there is not the same opportunity for difference 
of opinion. 

But rules of golf are much more complex 
than those of any other game we know of ex- 
cept perhaps Mah Jong. The game itself is 
intricate, although the primary conditions are 
of the simplest, its object being to get the ball 
into eighteen holes with the fewest number of 
strokes possible and its fundamental principle 
being to play the ball as it lies. It is in the 



12 LAW OF THE LINKS 

transgression of this cardinal law— the govern- 
ing spirit of the game — that perhaps nine-tenths 
of the ordinary violations of the rules are com- 
mitted. And any young golfer cannot statt 
better than preserving this principle as a per- 
petual memorandum. The golfer who system- 
atically and habitually plays the ball as it 
lies will make few mistakes in principle, either 
through the green or on the putting green. In 
fine, this means that he will never do anything 
to improve his lie, except availing himself of 
the single permission to lift a ** loose impedi- 
ment^* within a club's length of his ball; of 
dropping it according to specifications should 
it be on "ground under repair;" that if his 
ball should move in addressing it (except on 
the tee) he will at once inform his competitor 
and take the penalty of a stroke, and that he 
will inform himself of the specific rules, U. S. 
G. A. and local, according to the course on 
which he is playing, as to the playing of a ball 
within a club's length of upkeep obstacles or 
lying on other debateable ground. 

Despite their complexity, the rules of golf 
are inspired by equity and are usually a matter 
of common sense combined with the spirit of 
good sportsmanship. All too often one hears 



LAW OF THE LINKS 13 

a player ask if he may do this or that, when 
he himself is perfectly conscious that such an 
action cannot be within the terms of the rules 
because it would be contrary to the spirit of the 
game and against common or garden fairness. 



14 LAW OF THE LINKS 



CHAPTER II. 

The Penalties for a Lost Ball and Essential 
Etiquette 

Having, then, the fixed principle firmly im- 
planted in our minds that the fundamental 
virtue of the game of golf is to play the ball 
as it lies, let us consider the exceptions to this 
rule. The exceptions provided for are only 
for circumstances which prevent the possibility 
of playing the ball as it lies. The first excep- 
tion obviously is a lost ball, and the rule permits 
a player to return to the spot from which he 
struck the ball which is lost and play another 
ball, losing what is usually known as ''stroke 
and distance." In the event of the ball hav- 
ing been lost from a tee shot, he is permitted 
to tee another ball, and is then playing his third 
shot. In some clubs the penalty has been re- 
duced to distance only, but it is most important 
to inform yourself of the local rule in this re- 
gard before entering a tournament. Any such 
local rule should be plainly printed on the back 
of the score card. 



LAW OF THE LINKS 15 

Let US pause at this instance to consider the 
selfish, discourteous and altogether abominable 
practice so very prevalent in regard to the 
rights of players when a ball is lost in their 
match. This breach of the etiquette of golf 
occurs not only in tournaments, but every day 
on most courses in the progress of four-ball 
matches, the daily habit of the majority of 
modern golfers. 

When a ball is lost — and it does not take 
more than a few seconds to be convinced of 
such a situation — it is the duty of the players 
to signal promptly to the match behind them 
to ''come through." This part of the cere- 
mony is usually observed, but, sad to relate, 
in nine cases out of ten the lost ball hunters 
often find the errant pill just as the match be- 
hind them is on their heels and ruthlessly pro- 
ceed with their own match to the delay and 
discomfiture of the match behind them, which 
has the prior rights. 

Let there be no mistake in this matter. The 
Etiquette of Golf, quite as important as the 
rules themselves, ordains: 

Players when looking for a lost ball 
should allow other matches coming up to 
pass them; they should signal to the 



le LAW OF THE LINKS 

players following them to pass, and having 
given such a signal they should not con- 
tinue their play until these players have 
passed and are out of reach. 
And in this connection of four-ball matches, 
another unwritten regulation is that in the case 
of slow four-ballers such as those who are play- 
ing best ball and aggregate, syndicate and other 
combinations which necessitate the holing out 
of each player 's putts, it is the duty of laggards 
who are not keeping their place on the green 
to allow speedier players to pass them when- 
ever the aforesaid laggards have a clear hole 
in front of them which is not occupied. 

Before leaving the subject of lost ball, de- 
finition number 20 says "A ball is lost if it be 
not found within five minutes after the search 
for it has been begun. ' ' 

A ball which disappears in a water hazard 
or even in casual water is not treated as a lost 
ball. The penalty for dropping a ball behind 
a water hazard is one stroke ; there is no penalty 
for dropping a second ball for a lost ball in 
casual water on the fairway, a condition, h&w^ 
ever, which rarely occurs. 

In making the penalty ''stroke and distance" 
for lost ball, out of bounds and unplayable lie. 



LAW OF THE LINKS 17 

the combined authorities of the R. and A. and 
the U. S. G. A. were anxious to make the pen- 
alty uniform for the three cases. But there 
was such an uproar concerning the excessive 
penalty for a ball out of bounds that the U. S. 
G. A. added a rider to the rule that ''the penalty 
stroke may be remitted by the local rule.'' 
The U. S. G. A. has now added this rider to the 
lost ball rule, and in many of the clubs of Cali- 
fornia the penalty in both cases is now only the 
loss of distance. 

The penalty for ' ' unplayable lie ' ' still stands 
as to both stroke and distance, which is an 
equitable rule, because in the opinion of many 
golfers there is no such thing as an unplayable 
lie, and the excessive penalty also is enforced 
to prevent players taking advantage of prefer- 
ence to play another shot rather than face a 
situation which may cost them still more 
strokes. Thus a player drives into the woods 
and is fearful lest he cannot get out of the 
difficulty with a single stroke. It is obviously 
within the discretion of the player himself to 
determine if a lie is unplayable, and if he 
chooses so to regard it the double penalty 
should be enforced. 



18 LAW OF THE LINKS 



CHAPTER III. 
When the Ball Cannot Be Played as it Lies 

The next consideration of cases in which the 
ball is not played as it lies is the out-of-bounds 
rule. On the links of our ancestors there was 
practically no out-of-bounds rule, for on the 
large expanse of seaside dunes there were no 
restricting boundaries other than the sea. But 
on the modern inland course, which used to be 
considered and named thus in contrast to the 
seaside links, neighboring private property and 
public roads necessitated the establishment of 
^'bounds." 

The ''out-of-bounds" cry from a fore caddie 
is one of the most distressing sounds in a 
golfer's ear. Only the other day it cost John 
Black the national open championship, and at 
the last hole but one of the long grind of 
seventy-two holes. But even at Skokie, in the 
most important event staged by the United 
States Golf Association, the double penalty of 
''stroke and distance," as ordained by the 
joint wisdom of the U. S. G. A. and the Royal 



LAW OF THE LINKS 19 

and Ancient of St. Andrews, was modified to 
"distance only," and, as far as this country- 
is concerned, public opinion is so strong that 
the single penalty is today almost universal, 
and on many courses a similar local rule is 
adopted to make the penalty for a lost ball the 
same. 

There should be as little out-of-bounds as 
possible, and recently the golf commissioners 
of the Olympic Club at Lakeside, where the club 
now owns its own property, the contraband 
land has properly been reduced to a minimum. 

When a player drives a ball out of bounds 
from the tee he is permitted to tee his ball, 
but in all other cases *'a ball shall be dropped" 
and *'as nearly as possible at the spot from 
which the previous ball was played." 

The second section of rule 22 ordains that in 
order to save delay a player when he thinks 
he has hit a ball out of bounds, may at once 
play an alternate ball, but if the first ball is 
discovered to be within bounds he shall play it 
without penalty. The player is not entitled to 
presume that his ball is out of bounds till he 
has found it, after a search of five minutes. 

A further important note concerning the out- 
of-bounds rule is that a player may stand out 



20 LAW OF THE LINKS 

of bounds to play a ball lying within bounds. 

When else, besides the lost ball and the ball 
out-of-bounds, is the ball not played as it lies ? 

If your ball is in such a position that it is 
unplayable — a condition which in the opinion 
of many good players never obtains — ^both in 
match and medal play the ball may be lifted 
and, returning to the spot from which the stroke 
was played, you lose ''stroke and distance." 
If the "unplayable ball" was hit from the tee 
you are permitted to tee it and you are playing 
three ; if through the green the ball must be 
dropped and you are playing ''two more." 

There are a number of advocates in favor of 
making the penalty for the unplayable ball loss 
of distance only. They maintain, and with 
some reason, that the double penalty is ex- 
cessive in that it practically puts a player out 
of a hole in match play, and is too severe in 
medal play or stroke competition. 

But the old rule which permitted a player to 
tee a ball which he regarded as unplayable, 
with the penalty of two strokes, enforced prac- 
tically the same punishment. 

Many cases of "unplayable balls" are prop- 
erly covered by local rules or by Rule 11, which 
permits "a ball lying in or touching any flag 



LAW OF THE LINKS 21 

stick, guide flag, movable guide post, wheel- 
barrow, tool, roller, grasscutter, box, vehicle 
or similar obstacle, '^ (when these obstructions 
cannot be moved) "or lying on or touching 
clothes, or tents, or ground under repair or 
covered up or opened for the purpose of the up- 
keep of the course, or lying in one of the holes, 
or in a guide flag hole, or in a hole made by 
the greenkeeper, to be lifted and dropped with- 
out penalty as near as possible to the place 
where it lay, but no nearer the hole." This 
sanction also obtains to a ball lying within a 
club's length of a pile or mound, water pipe, 
or hydrant, and ' ' as near as possible ' ' is defined 
"within a club's length." A pile or mound of 
cut grass or any other material piled up for 
removal is considered "upkeep" and a ball 
lodging in or lying on such an obstruction may 
be lifted and dropped without penalty. 

Other exceptions to the cardinal rule of play- 
ing the ball as it lies are found in reference to 
water hazards and casual water. Rule 27 
orders that if a ball lie or be lost in a recognized 
water hazard (whether the ball lie in water or 
not), or in casual water in a hazard, the player 
may drop a ball under penalty of one stroke, 
either behind the hazard or in the hazard. If 



22 LAW OF THE LINKS 

a ball lie in casual water through the green, 
the player may drop a ball within two club 
lengths of the margin and if a ball lie in casual 
water on the green or if casual water intervene 
between a ball lying on the putting green and 
the hole, the ball may be lifted without penalty 
and placed by hand either within two club 
lengths directly behind the spot from which 
the ball was lifted, or in the nearest position 
to that spot which is not nearer the hole and 
which affords a putt to the hole without casual 
water intervening. 

One more exception, and this on the putting 
green, is that when balls lie within six inches 
of each other (the distance to be measured 
from the nearest points) the ball lying nearer 
to the hole may be lifted, which leads us to the 
consideration of the stymie in the next chapter. 



LAW OF THE LINKS 23 



CHAPTER IV. 

What the Stsnnie Means — Balls on the Putting 
Green in Match Play 

The stymie has been the casus belli between 
two schools of golf in America for more than 
ten years; but in 1922, after several experi- 
ments for its elimination, it was restored 
to its time-honored status. The Western Golf 
Association, composed of most of the leading 
clubs in the Middle West and numerous clubs 
in the far West, led the campaign against the 
stymie as the result of a very general protest 
against its imagined unfairness. The survival 
of the stymie through centuries of golf is only 
another evidence of the cardinal principle of 
the game to play the ball as it lies, equally 
applicable to circumstances on the putting 
green as through the green. The opponents of 
the stymie have always argued that the situa- 
tion is a result of luck and often precipitates 
unfair and unfortunate conditions. But the 
counter argument plainly is that there always 
must be a certain element of luck in any game ; 



24 LAW OF THE LINKS 

that the stymie adds interest to golf and, most 
important of all, that the element of luck can 
be overcome by skill. 

There have been some advocates for reducing 
golf to mathematical precision as a test of pure 
skill, attempting to eliminate every element 
of luck; but the plan is obviously impossible, 
and it is gravely open to doubt if the game 
would be as attractive as in its natural state, 
where *' breaks" will always obtain. One of 
the great charms of golf is its splendid uncer- 
tainty, in which the wind and weather play 
tremendous parts. Moreover, hardly any two 
**lies" are alike. 

Conceding putts, which was the device at- 
tempted as a solution of the stymie, did not 
prove satisfactory. It violated a cardinal prin- 
ciple of the game and was never convincing 
in that we have all seen even the best of play- 
ers miss ''sitters" when they had to be holed 
at a pinch. 

Hence, after several years of experiment the 
stymie has been restored both by the U. S. G. 
A. and the Western, and is now again of world- 
wide prevalence. The definition of a stymie 
is as follows : 

A player is laid a stymie if on the putting green 



LAW OF THE LINKS 25 

the opponent's ball lies in the line of his putt to 
the hole, provided the balls be not within six 
inches of each other (the distance to be measured 
from the nearest points). 

This is the sole exception to the rule that 
stymies must be played. The player who con- 
cedes a putt, when his ball is further from the 
hole than his opponent, automatically loses the 
hole. If a player hits his opponent's ball, the 
opponent has the option of leaving his ball 
where it is or replacing it. If a player knocks 
his opponent's ball into the hole in the act of 
playing his own ball, his opponent is considered 
to have holed out on his last putt. 

It is not lawful to pick up your ball to clean 
it unless there is a special local rule providing 
such special permission. It is hard luck to have 
to putt a ball with a slice of mud adhering to it, 
especially if that mud has been gathered by a 
fine backspin approach, but it must be done. 
Even if you have to lift your ball for causal 
water or in case of your ball being within six 
inches of your opponent 's ball, you are not per- 
mitted to clean it. 

Cleaning a ball when in play entails a pen- 
alty of disqualification in medal play, and the 
loss of the hole in match play, except under 
special rulings of local committees in charge. 



26 LAW OF THE LINKS 

The rules for medal play in reference to 
putting are, of course, different. When both 
balls are on the putting green, if a competitor's 
ball strike the ball of the player with whom he 
is competing, the competitor shall incur a pen- 
alty of one stroke, and the ball which was 
struck shall at once be replaced. Hence in 
medal play you may always have your op- 
ponent's ball lifted. But we will defer the dis- 
cussion of similar provisions until we deal with 
the special rules for play in stroke competi- 
tions. 

Is there, then, any other case in which a ball 
may be lifted in match play? 

A ball in play may, with the opponent's con- 
sent, be lifted for the purpose of identification. 

When the balls lie within a club's length of 
each other through the green, or in a hazard, 
the ball lying nearer the hole may, at the 
option of either the player of the opponent, be 
lifted until the other ball is played. 

If a ball split into separate pieces another 
ball may be dropped where any piece lies. If 
a ball crack or become unfit for play the player 
may change it on intimating to his opponent 
his intention to do so. Mud adhering to a ball 



LAW OF THE LINKS 27 

shall not be considered as making it unfit for 
play. 

We have now considered all the cases in 
match play when a ball may be lifted, and the 
important thing for the beginner to remember 
is that these are only exceptions to the general 
governing rule : 

A ball must be played wherever it lies or the 
hole be given up. 

In the exceptions it is important to remember 
there is a strictly prescribed method of drop- 
ping a ball which is constantly violated by 
many players : 

The player himself shall drop it. He shall 
face the hole, stand erect and drop the ball 
behind him over his shoulder. The penalty 
for breach of this rule is the loss of the hole. 
He can only drop it once, unless it rolls into 
a hazard, in which case he may re-drop without 
penalty. If in the act of dropping the ball, it 
touch the player, he incurs no penalty, but must 
still play the ball as it lies. 



LAW OF THE LINKS 



CHAPTER Y. 



Etiquette on the Tee — Heavy Responsibilities 
on Your Caddie's Shoulders 

Starting again from the first tee, before driv- 
ing off, it is well to consider certain points of 
etiquette thereon. Punctuality is the first con- 
sideration, and this is a point on which too 
many golfers are impolitely lax. In the older 
centers of golf unpunctuality at tournaments 
is not condoned. You are given a certain time 
for starting your medal round or your match, 
and if you are not ready when your name is 
called, your name is expunged and you are dis- 
qualified or defaulted then and there. In nine 
cases out of ten there can be no excuse for 
keeping on the anxious seat the man with whom 
you are paired for a medal round or your op- 
ponent in a match. In the latter instance, un- 
less a message has been sent pleading delay 
and special sanction, it is unreasonable to ex- 
pect your opponent to wait indefinitely and not 
claim a default. In most cases a golfer dislikes 
to win by default, and the onus of such ' ' walk- 



LAW OF THE LINKS 29 

overs" should be undertaken by the official 
starter or the directors of a tournament. 

In the event of a competitor discovering that 
he cannot compete in the match play, he should 
notify the officials when he turns in his medal 
score to prevent his name being drawn and 
possibly keeping some other player out of a 
flight. In no case is a player permitted to re- 
ceive a prize for a gross or net score in a qual- 
ifying round if he does not intend to compete 
in the match play. (Etiquette of golf, clause 
10.) 

When your fellow competitor or opponent is 
on the tee, do not stand behind him, but by the 
tee-box, ready to make your own tee as soon as 
he has driven. Remember the first clause in 
the Etiquette of Golf, '*No one should stand 
close to, or directly behind the ball, move or 
talk when a player is making a stroke." 

It is important before a stroke competition 
or a match to inform yourself thoroughly of 
any local rules which should be printed plainly 
on the back of the score card or posted in a 
conspicuous place. 

Remember that you are not permitted to ask 
advice from anyone but your own caddie. The 
penalty is the loss of the hole in the match play 



30 LAW OF THE LINKS 

and disqualification in medal play. Remember 
also that your caddie is part and parcel of your- 
self and that any fault of his or transgression 
of the rules on his part is equivalent to your 
committing it yourself. 

The penalties involved by the actions of a 
careless or ignorant caddie are very severe, and 
presumably the code was so drafted when the 
average caddie in Scotland was an experienced 
and sometimes too canny adult, instead of the 
half-baked lads whom too often nowadays we 
are forced to endure. For instance, if your 
caddie moves either your own ball or your op- 
ponent's — inadvertently, it may be — ^you are 
punished with the loss of the hole. In the 
medal play if your caddie does anything to 
improve your lie — or, for that matter, your 
stance by holding back brush or the limbs of 
a tree — you are penalized two strokes. If 
your ball hits your caddie you lose the hole and 
the penalty in medal play is one stroke. 

In teeing your ball, be careful that it is with- 
in the discs and not more than two club lengths 
behind them. In medal play, if a competitor 
drives from outside the limits of the teeing 
ground, he shall count a stroke and play his 
second from within these limits. In match 



LAW OF THE LINKS 31 

play the shot may be at once recalled without 
penalty. 

When playing through the green, or from a 
hazard, a player may have the line to the hole 
indicated to him by his caddie, but he must 
place no mark nor stand on the line in order 
to indicate it while the stroke is being made. 
The penalty for a breach of this rule is the loss 
of the hole in match play and two strokes in 
medal play. 

Similarly, on the green, your caddie may 
point out the line of putt to you, but in doing 
this he must not touch the ground on the pro- 
posed line of putt. The penalty is again the 
loss of a hole or the equivalent of two strokes 
in medal play. 

Hence it is obvious that the responsibility 
attached to the caddie is onerous, apart from 
his helpful or distressful demeanor. A good 
caddie wins many a match for his principal. 
An indifferent or bad caddie is a serious hand- 
icap. But if you don 't know the rules yourself, 
how in St. Andrews can you expect your cad- 
die to know them? 



32 LAW OF THE LINKS 



CHAPTER VI 

*' Through the Green" — The Crime of 
Improving Your Lie 

Having now left the first tee, keep once more, 
and always, in mind the cardinal principle to 
*'play the ball as it lies," and thus you will 
avoid nine out of ten of the usual transgressions 
of the rules. Walter Hagen, the first native 
American to win the British open champion- 
ship, was confronted at Sandwich with a very 
bad lie from a very good tee shot. ^' Hello," 
remarked a sympathetic friend in the gallery, 
*' that's a rotten lie and tough luck!" 

*'Yes," responded Hagen, with that charac- 
teristic smile of his, "but that's where it lies!" 
There's the true golfer for you. 

The temptation to improve one 's lie by press- 
ing the ground with the club immediately be- 
hind the ball is often present, but if indulged in 
it should cost you the hole in match play and 
two strokes in medal play. Rule 10 says: *'In 
playing through the green irregularities of sur- 
face, which could in any way affect the player's 



LAW OF THE LINKS 33 

stroke, shall not be removed nor pressed down 
by the player or his caddie. ' ' 

The most frequent violation of this rule and 
cardinal principle is seen in the rough, where 
too many players have the mistaken idea that 
they are entitled to a sight of their ball. This 
positively is not so. If a ball is hidden from 
view, it must be played as such, the only pro- 
vision made being that a player may remove 
a *4oose impediment'' within a club's length 
of his ball. Hence a dead stick or stone may 
be lifted within the prescribed limits. But 
nothing 'living" may be touched. Every 
golfer should memorize rule 15, which reads: 
Before striking a ball in play, a player shall not 
move, bend nor break anything fixed or growing, 
except so far as necessary to enable him fairly to 
take his stance in addressing the ball, or in mak- 
ing his backward or forward swing. The club may 
only be grounded lightly and not pressed on the 
ground. 

A note to this rule explains that ''drawing 
the club back and forward across the line of 
play is illegal and entails a penalty of loss of 
hole in match play and penalty of two strokes 
in medal play or stroke competition." Undue 
pressure in grounding a club entails a similar 
penalty. 

In reference to the popular delusion that a 



34 LAW OF THE LINKS 

player is entitled to a "sight of his ball," rule 
10 is emphasized by rule 21, which ordains that 
''if a ball lie in fog, bent bushes, lon^ grass or 
the like" (in the rough), "only so much thereof 
shall be touched as will enable the player to 
find his ball. ' ' There is the double penalty for 
breach of this rule, loss of hole in match play 
and two strokes in medal. 

The only exception to this rule is when a ball 
is completely covered with sand, only so much 
of the sand may be removed as to enable the 
player to see the top of his ball. 

There is very general misconception about 
practice swings, and many, even topnotch 
players, may be seen constantly violating the 
rule that "a player may take a practice swing 
or swings more than a club's length from the 
ball." (U. S. G. A.) Some players also have 
the mistaken idea that it is a violation of this 
rule to take a practice swing in the direction 
of the hole, but this is not so proscribed. 

In any match or stroke competition a player 
should be careful to see who is "away" before 
playing a stroke. "The ball farther from the 
hole shall be played first. ' ' At any time when 
a player violates this rule, which only entails 
common courtesy, his opponent may at once re- 



LAW OF THE LINKS 35 

call the stroke. Frequent violations of this 
courtesy are to be seen, the result largely of the 
prevalent four-ball match in which, as a rule, 
the players are too exclusively interested in the 
fate of their own balls to be concerned about 
that of the other fellow. The real courtesy of 
the game of golf is that no player or his caddie 
should be in front of the ball in play — that is 
the ball furthest from the hole. It is certainly 
disconcerting, to say the least, to be addressing 
your ball with a player nonchalantly advancing 
either on the right or left of you and some- 
times, indeed, almost in front of you. And in 
this matter, caddies should be schooled as well 
as players. 

If there is doubt between players as to which 
of the two is ' ' away, ' ' either through the green 
or on the putting green, the question often in- 
volving a critical situation, in the absence of 
a referee, is best settled by tossing a coin. 

Accidents in golf are, of course, quite fre- 
quent, and one of the most common and dis- 
tressing of them is when a player in addressing 
his ball moves it. He must at once draw the 
attention of his opponent or playing companion 
in medal competition to the fact and charge 
himself with the penalty of one stroke. ^'A 



36 LAW OF THE LINKS 

ball is deemed to have moved if it leave its 
original position in the least degree; but it is 
not considered to 'move' if it merely oscillates 
and comes to rest in its original position. " 

One more reflection before we come to the 
rules about hazards, and that is the definition 
of a *' stroke." It is the ''forward movement 
of the club made with the intention of strik- 
ing the ball, or any contact between the head 
of the club and the ball resulting in movement 
of the ball, except in the case of a ball ac- 
cidently knocked off a tee." 

To avoid the breach of the rule against mov- 
ing your ball, be careful about addressing your 
ball, either through the green or on the putting 
green. It is a dangerous practice to address 
your ball too close or to pass your club over 
the ball too often. Many players while settling 
for a putt, address the ball both fore and aft. 
And in passing the club over the ball there is 
often imminent danger of touching it and mov- 
ing it, with the consequent penalty of a stroke. 



LAW OF THE LINKS 37 



CHAPTER VII 

** Loose Impediments" — Definition of a 
Hazard 

Playing through the green, there are cer- 
tain rules to be observed both in connection 
with the fairway and hazards. We have al- 
ready discussed the exceptions to the given 
rules of playing the ball as it lies, and the mat- 
ter now in front of us, is that of ''loose impedi- 
ments." There should be no such thing on the 
fairway, but too often its fair surface is littered 
with cigarettes or match boxes dropped by care- 
less or ill-mannered players, and occasionally, 
of course, there is a stick, twig, or stone that 
has found its way on to the green sward. The 
loose impediment must be within a club 's length 
of your ball for you to have the right to lift 
or move it. If you move an impediment which 
is more than a club's length from the ball, 
you lose the hole in match play or two strokes 
in medal play. The term ''loose impediments" 
denotes, ' ' any obstruction not fixed or growing 



38 LAW OF THE LINKS 

and includes dung, wormcasts, mole, hills, snow 
and ice." 

Nothing may be touched or moved in a haz- 
ard, which is defined as ''any bunker, water 
(except casual water), sand, path, road, ditch, 
bush or rushes.'^ 

The term ''bunker" is generally understood 
to mean a sand or gravel pit, artificial or nat- 
ural. In the case of the hazards of road or path, 
they must be regarded as such, unless, as at 
some clubs, there is a local rule concerning 
them. The rule concerning hazards exempts 
from ' ' sand * ' such sand as is blown on the fair- 
way or placed there for upkeep, much as casual 
water is exempted from water hazards. 

When a ball lies in a hazard "the club shall 
not touch the ground, nor shall anything be 
touched or moved before the player strikes at 
the ball." 

The exceptions to this otherwise adamant 
rule are that the player may place his feet 
firmly on the ground for the purpose of taking 
his stance, and in addressing the ball, or in 
his backward or forward swing, any grass, bent, 
bush or other growing substance, or the side of 
a bunker, paling, or other immovable obstacle. 
Violation of this rule cost a player the Ohio 



LAW OF THE LINKS 39 

championship in 1922, when on the home hole 
he was trapped in a bunker and his club touched 
the sand on his back swing. It is very impor- 
tant to remember this rule, for a great many 
players seem to think they are at liberty to 
touch the sand on their back swing. Obviously, 
of course, they touch the sand before the ball 
on their down swing when they are playing an 
''explosive shot." 

There is a further exemption in regard to 
touching anything in a bunker or hazard in the 
case of steps or planks placed in a hazard for 
access or egress, and these may be moved with- 
out penalty. 

The rule about "unplayable ball" already 
has been discussed, the penalty being stroke 
and distance, but the old rule still obtains in 
medal play only, that a ball may be lifted from 
any place (rule 11) on the course, and may be 
teed and played with the penalty of two 
strokes. This, however, is a situation which 
very rarely occurs, for in ninety-nine cases out 
of a hundred the player will prefer to take the 
usual penalty of stroke and distance. 

If the ball lie or be lost in a water hazard 
(whether the ball lie in water or not) or in 



40 LAW OF. THE LINKS 

casual water in a hazard, the player may drop 
a ball under penalty of one stroke, either (a) 
behind the hazard, keeping the spot, at which 
the ball entered the margin of the hazard be- 
tween himself and the hole, or (b) in the haz- 
ard under the same provision. Of course, a 
player taking the penalty will usually prefer 
to drop it outside the hazard, but not more 
than two club lengths from the hazard. 



LAW or THE LINKS 41 



CHAPTER VIII 

Courtesies of the Game and Opponent's 
Misfortunes 

"We have now exhausted the rules as far as 
they pertain '' through the green," that is on 
the fairway, in ''the rough," lost ball, out of 
bounds, unplayable lie and hazards. But be- 
fore approaching the putting green, there is a 
question of etiquette concerning looking for a 
lost ball, about which many golfers and spec- 
tators frequently display their ignorance. No 
one in a gallery — ^no one ' ' outside the match ' ' — 
has any right to assist a player looking for a 
lost ball until and unless his opponent inter- 
venes and sanctions such "interference." 
When an exciting match is being followed by 
a gallery, frequently some ill-informed person 
imagines he is performing signal service by 
discovering the lost ball. Under the strictest 
interpretation of the code, such interference 
may cost the player the loss of the hole. 

Five minutes is the maximum of time per- 
mitted to search before a ball is decisively 



42 LAW OF THE LINKS 

^'lost." I once knew an opponent who stood 
by with a watch in hand while the player and 
his caddie were looking for the balj, but this 
is a brutal exception to the courtesies of the 
game which demand that a golfer is as con- 
cerned as much for his opponent as for himself 
and invariably assists in the search for a ball. 
If there is any prolonged delay, the opponent 
does the graceful thing by promptly signaling 
to spectators asking them to assist in the search. 

No true golfer wishes to profit by his op- 
ponent's misfortune, and he will always prefer 
that the ball be found. Some cynical players 
are of the frame of mind which induced An- 
drew Lang to define ^'a good shot" as ''one 
that lands your opponent in a bunker," and 
we have occasionally heard a jocular and too 
eager player exclaim over his partner's punish- 
ment, ''Hard luck — thank Heaven!" 

The true spirit of golf, however, is that of 
the sportsman and the gentleman who does not 
want to profit by his opponent's bad luck or 
even by his bad play, but desires to win a match 
by his better golf alone. 

Two other considerations may be reviewed 
before we come to the putting green, the first 
of which is what happens when you play the 



LAW OF THE LINKS 43 

wrong ball. There is seldom any excuse for 
playing with your opponent's ball or with a 
ball outside the match. The rules provide that 
you may always, after obtaining your op- 
ponent's consent, lift the ball for identification, 
carefully replacing it where it lay. 

But in the event of your discovering that 
you have played with the wrong ball you lose 
the hole (Rule 23) unless the opponent then 
plays the player's ball, in which case the pen- 
alty is canceled, and unless the mistake occur 
through the information given by an opponent 
or his caddie. If the mistake be discovered be- 
fore the opponent has played, it shall be recti- 
fied by dropping a ball as near as possible to 
the place where the opponent's ball lay. 

In stroke competition or medal play, if a 
player play a stroke with a ball other than his 
own, he shall incur no penalty provided that 
he then plays his own ball, but if he plays two 
consecutive strokes with a wrong ball he shall 
be disqualified. 

On the putting green if a player plays with a 
wrong ball the ball shall be replaced. 

In a hazard, if a competitor play more than 
one stroke with a ball other than his own and 
the mistake be discovered before he has played 



44 LAW OF. THE LINKS 

a stroke with the wrong ball from outside the 
limits of the hazard, he shall incur no penalty- 
provided he then plays with his own ball. 

In the Pacific Northwest amateur champion- 
ship in 1920 at Vancouver that very fine golfer 
and sportsman, H, Chandler Egan, about the 
thirtieth hole of the final with Wilhelm, hooked 
a shot into the woods, apparently found his 
ball, played out and won the hole. As he 
picked his ball out of the cup he exclaimed: 
"Your hole, Rudy! This is not my ball.'' This 
action caused many plaudits for Egan from the 
gallery, but no true golfer and honest player 
could have done otherwise. 

If a player play a stroke with the ball of any 
one not engaged in the match and the mistake 
be discovered and intimated to his opponent 
before his opponent has played his next stroke, 
there shall be no penalty ; but if the mistake is 
not discovered and so intimated until after the 
opponent has played his next stroke, the 
player's side shall lose the hole (Rule 20). 



LAW OF THE LINKS 45 



CHAPTER IX. 

On the Putting Green Both in Match and 
Medal Play 

We are now approaching the putting green, 
and it is well to be punctilious concerning 
whose turn it is to play — "Who's away?" 
This is often the crisis of a hole and of many a 
match. Do not play your shot until you are 
satisfied it is your right, because under the 
rules your opponent in match play may recall 
your shot if you have played out of turn. 

As you come toward the green — in fairly 
sociable proximity, it may be hoped, to your 
opponent — it is well to intimate the score lest 
there be any mistake on your part or on his. 
The terms in match play are different from 
those in medal play, in which you simply re- 
count the number of strokes played. In a 
match you say, *'Like as we lie," if you have 
both played the same number of strokes; or 
**I'm playing the odd," if you are, like as you 
lie before the stroke, or " I 'm playing the like, * * 
if your opponent has already played one more 



46 LAW OF THE LINKS 

stroke than yourself. If your opponent lies 
three and you are playing five you say, ''I'm 
playing two more," or, if vice versk, you say, 
''I'm playing one off two." These terms are 
time honored and should be assimilated by 
every golfer. This method is much more polite 
and also self-assuaging if your opponent has 
already played six strokes and you are playing 
seven. Playing against the pencil in stroke 
competition is sufficient torture for truth tell- 
ing and humiliation in horrid numerals. 

In stroke competition or in medal play you 
must realize that it is your positive, if painful, 
duty to watch and record every stroke that 
your playing companion makes. It is also your 
duty to "call" him for any infraction of the 
rules. There is, or should be, nothing personal 
in either of these duties, for you and he are 
simply competitors against many others and 
you represent their interests as well as your 
own. Unhappily, it is not enough to remind 
some pot-hunters that "God is watching 'em" 
in the rough. You must keep your own weather 
eye open. To avoid any trouble or error it is 
well in medal play to call the score after every 
hole is played as you record it on the card. You 
should keep only your playing companion's 



LAW OF THE LINKS 47 

score — you are his ''marker" — but there is no 
reason why you cannot keep your own on the 
margin of the card as a tally. 

Coming then, at last, to the green, what rules 
are there about which you may have any 
doubt? Contrary to the rule which through 
the green prevents you from moving or lifting 
any "loose impediment" which is more than a 
club length from your ball, you may pick up 
and remove any loose impediment on the green, 
and the green is defined as twenty yards from 
the hole. 

But you must not use your club to brush 
aside anything along the line of your putt un- 
less it be "dung, worm casts, snow and ice," 
which may be scraped aside with the club but 
"the club must not be laid with more than its 
own weight upon the ground, nor must any- 
thing be pressed down either with the club or 
in any other way. ' ' The reason for these tense 
restrictions is obvious; for the third clause of 
the rule (28) ordains "The line of the putt 
must not be touched, except by placing the club 
immediately in front of the ball in the act of 
addressing it, and as above authorized. ' ' 

One can hardly be too meticulous in the 
observation of the rules on the putting green, 



48 LAW OF THE LINKS 

for infringement is very costly. You probably 
have seen even experienced golfers tapping the 
line of the putt with their clubs. The penalty 
is loss of the hole in match play and two strokes 
in medal play. Remember that any ''loose im- 
pediment ' ' other than those authorized must be 
lifted and scraped aside. This injunction 
refers to loose leaves or twigs, cigarette stubs, 
matches or any other "loose impediment. '^ 
But the hand may be used to lift any of them. 
Only be scrupulously sure that it is a loose im- 
pediment and not a growing one, even if an 
apparently dead blade of grass or weed. The 
man, even though it be Jim Barnes, who picks 
a four-leaf clover on the green while the ball is 
in play, may lose a match or championship for 
doing so. 

In moving loose impediments be very careful 
that you do not affect the lie of your ball. If 
the player's ball moves after any loose impedi- 
ment lying within six inches of it has been 
touched by the player or his caddie, the player 
shall be deemed to have caused it to move and 
the penalty shall be one stroke. 

It is not permissible to touch the ground be- 
hind the hole in order to point out the line of 



LAW OF THE LINKS 49 

putt. The player's caddie or his partner's 
caddie may, before the stroke is played, point 
out the direction for putting, but in doing this 
they shall not touch the ground on the proposed 
line of putt. No mark shall be placed any- 
where on the putting green. Nor is any player 
or caddie engaged in the match allowed by 
moving or otherwise to influence the action of 
the wind upon the ball. 

A player is always entitled to send his own 
caddie to stand at the hole while he plays his 
stroke. But either player is entitled to have 
the flagstick removed while approaching the 
hole (Rule 22). If, however, a player's ball 
strike the flagstick which has been so removed 
by himself or his partner, or his caddie, he 
shall lose the hole. 

In medal play, when a ball lying within 
twenty yards of the hole is played and strikes, 
or is stopped by the flagstick or the person 
standing at the hole, the penalty is two strokes. 



50 LAWS or THE LINKS 



CHAPTER X 

Severe But Proper Penalties For Not Strictly 
Observing the Code 

Thus there is nothing in the rules governing 
match play, which prevents your putting at 
any distance with the flag-stick still in the hole 
as long as your opponent does not demand 
that it be removed. But in medal play there 
is penalty of two strokes if you hit the flag 
when you have putted from within twenty 
yards' distance therefrom — the technical area 
of the putting green. 

Also there is in medal play a severe penalty 
of one stroke for hitting the other fellow's ball 
when both balls are on the putting green. 
Therefore it behooves you to be very careful 
to have your playing companion's ball lifted 
if there is any danger of your hitting it. This 
is particularly true when his ball lies beyond 
the hole. I have seen a player in a stroke com- 
petition make a very fine putt slightly over- 
running the hole and hitting the other ball, 



LAWS OF THE LINKS 51 

and have been sorry for his chagrin when he 
faced the penalty of one stroke. 

The rule most often broken by young players 
in stroke competition, is neglecting to hole out 
every putt. Because his ball lies within two or 
three inches of the hole, a novice forgets that 
it is necessary and imperative to hole it out 
with a proper stroke and not draw it in or 
''slop" at it. 

A leading young player of the Olympic Club 
was very indignant with me when in a qualify- 
ing round he missed a short putt and promptly 
picked up his ball. He would have been dis- 
qualified — out of the tournament entirely — if 
I had not insisted that he replace his ball prop- 
erly and putt it out with a penalty of two 
strokes. That is to say, he had missed the short 
putt for a five, and the hole eventually cost him 
eight. This error was doubtless due to the 
prevalence of the four-ball match in which 
altogether too many putts are conceded and one 
falls into loose and dangerous habits. 

It is, too, this frequent conceding of putts 
that causes so many players to form a totally 
erroneous and overflattering estimate of their 
"medal" scores over their home courses. 

''I got an 81 this morning," says McSandy, 



52 LAWS OF THE LINKS 

blithely, but having been a member of that 
four-ball match, you recall the fact that he 
took some three or four putts of more than 
three feet by the "gimme" route, and was 
fairly liberal to himself on at least one hole 
when he was entirely "out of the hole." 

If a ball rests against the flag-stick which is 
in the hole, the player or his caddie is entitled 
to remove the flag-stick, and, if the ball falls 
into the hole, the player shall be deemed to 
have holed out on the last stroke. 

Similarly, in match play, if a player's ball 
knocks his opponent's ball into the hole, the 
opponent is considered to have holed out at his 
last stroke. 

If your ball hits your opponent's ball (in 
match play), he is entitled, if he choose, to 
replace it, but this must be done before either 
player has played another stroke. 

There is often confusion and acrid argument 
concerning the fate of a ball (still in match 
play) which lies on the lip of the cup — how 
long may a player leave it there waiting for 
a favoring breeze ? Rule 32, section 3, ordains 
that if you have putted out and your opponent 
then plays his ball to the lip of the cup you 
are not allowed to knock it away, but he must 



LAWS OF THE LINKS 53 

play his next stroke at once if you ask him to 
do so. On the other hand, if your opponent's 
ball already lies on the lip of the cup before 
you putt and you hole out, you may then knock 
his ball away if you wish, conceding that he 
has putted out with the next stroke, unless 
your ball has struck his and set it in motion, 
so that there is a chance of its falling in. This 
rule requires very careful reading and diges- 
tion. 

Come we then to the stymie, which now has 
been restored apparently for good and all. 
There is no more conceding of putts in match 
play as long as both balls are on the green and 
your ball is further from the hole than your 
opponent's. The definition of a stymie is: 

A player is laid a stymie if on the putting 
green the opponent's ball lies in the line of 
his putt to the hole, provided the balls be not 
within six inches of each other. 

When they lie within six inches — the dis- 
tance being measured from their nearest points 
— the ball lying nearer to the hole may, at the 
option of the player or the opponent, be lifted 
until the other ball is played, and the lifted 
ball shall then be replaced as near as possible 
to the place where it lay. If either ball is 



54 LAWS OF THE LINKS 

accidentally moved in this process it must be 
replaced. 

The difference between match and medal 
play, necessitating two different sets of rules, 
or rather a special set of rules for medal play 
or stroke competition is, match play is com- 
petition by hole and medal play competition 
by stroke. 

There is one more set of rules to be con- 
sidered in the next and final article — the rules 
for three-ball, best ball and four-ball matches. 



LAWS OF THE LINKS 55 



CHAPTER XI 

Abuses of the Four-Ball Match — Time-Honored 
Courtesies of the Course 

Americans have made the four-ball match 
the most popular form of play upon the links, 
and today it is so prevalent that except in 
tournaments ' ' singles " or " twosomes, ' ' as they 
are sometimes called, are rarely in evidence. 
The old-fashioned foursome, in which a pair 
of players played the same ball at alternate 
stroke, has fallen into disuse and is rarely 
seen, except in the ''mixed" variety, in which 
a man and a woman are partners. 

The prevailing popularity of the four-ball 
match is due to its alleged advantages of socia- 
bility and to the variety of ' ' side ' ' matches and 
wagers which it admits. Until some fifteen 
years ago, the usual day's golf at our country 
clubs consisted of strenuous singles in the morn- 
ing and less energetic foursomes after lunch. 
But the American player at the week-end wants 
to get all the actual play he can possibly crowd 



56 LAWS OF THE LINKS 

in and prefers to play his own ball all the time 
as well as being in a partnership. 

There are several abuses of the four-ball 
match, which distresses the old-timer. The 
first is that too many four-ball addicts play too 
much to the score card and have forgotten 
the intrinsic virtue of golf to play the game 
hole by hole without bothering about the pes- 
tiferous pencil. Then again, some of the old- 
time courtesies and charms of the game have 
been abandoned. 

The time-honored courtesy of the links was 
to have as much consideration for your op- 
ponent or partner as for yourself and never to 
play your own ball until you were satisfied of 
the other fellow's position; moreover, never to 
be in advance, either player or caddie, of the 
ball in play. The modern tendency is to be 
callous of the other fellow, to rush after your 
own ball and often to be ahead of one of the 
players. Unless a golfer has become case hard- 
ened, he cannot do a stroke justice if caddies are 
in front of him and other members of the four- 
ball match are advancing on either side of 
him. Golf is not a foot race, and it is not 
comely to see players in a four-baller "hit and 
run. ' ' 



LAWS OF THE LINKS 57 

Moreover, the four-ball match has introduced 
to the links such complications as "best ball 
and aggregate" affairs in which each player 
must hole out every putt, thus necessarily de- 
laying the players behind their match and con- 
gesting the course. ''Side" issues should also 
be tabu in a real four-ball match. If A and 
B are partners against C and D, the contest 
should depend on collaborated effort, but if A 
has a side match against C — and sometimes a 
bigger bet — situations may arise when A is 
more concerned on beating C individually than 
in the joint issue with B against C and D, I 
have even played in matches in which the situa- 
tion has been reduced almost ad absurdum and 
the partners have had side matches against 
each other. But never again! 

The four-ball match, however, if properly 
played, has its golfing virtues as well as its 
social advantages. It is a combination of both 
stroke and match play, and ultimately gives 
the player good training against the pencil; 
but its weakness is that it tends against one 
of the invaluable assets in golf — self-reliance. 
A player is or thinks himself ' ' out of the hole ' ' 
and he falls into careless habits, placing all 
his reliance concerning the fate of the par- 



58 LAWS OF THE LINKS 

ticular hole on his partner. Too often a habit 
is formed of depending on the other fellow, 
and when the four-ball addict gets into a 
tournament, he sometimes feels like a lost sheep 
without a shepherd. 

The four-ball match was never designed for 
dubs. Originally it came into being as an ex- 
hibition form of match for professionals, and 
is certainly ideal for that purpose. But as a 
match for beginners it is about the worst thing 
that they could start on if seriously minded 
to improve their game. There is too much de- 
lay, too much distraction for the novice, and 
he is not likely to improve his game without 
the best opportunities for concentration and 
when either he is delayed or in too much of a 
hurry. 

The main rules of golf, of course, obtain in 
this form of match, and in others of the same 
ilk, the three-ball and the best ball. "When 
three players play against each other, each 
using his own ball, it is a three-ball match. 
When one player plays against the best ball 
or two or more players, it is called a best-ball 
match, and when two players play their better 
ball against the better ball of two other players, 
the match is called a four-ball match. 



LAWS OF THE LINKS 59 

In the very important and much - debated 
question of handicaps, the U. S. G. A. recom- 
mends that three-eighths of the difference of 
the combined handicaps be allowed. Thus if A, 
with a handicap of 4, and B with a handicap 
of 14 be matched against C, with a handicap 
of 8, and D with a handicap of 16, the latter 
start 2 up. 

Note also that the rules of the golf com- 
mittee recommend that players should not con- 
cede putts to their opponents. Many a golfer 
lends unction to his locker-room soul by imagin- 
ing that he has come in with an 81 when he 
has not holed three or four putts and might 
have had an 86. 

Any player may have any ball lifted or 
played, at the option of the owner, at any time 
in the match. If a player's ball move any other 
ball in the match, the moved ball must be re- 
placed as near as possible to the spot where it 
lay, without penalty. This rule also answers 
a question frequently asked. A, in putting his 
ball, hits one of his opponents ' balls, and either 
sinks it or pushes it dead. In either and every 
case the ball that was hit must be replaced. 
But if an opponent does not lift his ball, and 
you should be fortunate enough to carom off 



60 LAWS OF THE LINKS 

his ball, that is his mishap and your good 
fortune. 

Through the green a player shall incur no 
penalty for playing when his opponent should 
have played, but on the putting green the 
stroke may be recalled. 

If a player's ball strike or be stopped or 
moved by an opponent or his caddie, the op- 
ponent's side shall lose the hole. This rule, 
however, does not apply to four-ball stroke 
competition (medal play), in which such ac- 
cident is merely a ' ' rub of the green. ' ' 

If a player's ball (the player being one of 
a side) strike or be stopped by himself or his 
partner or by either of their caddies or clubs, 
only that player shall be disqualified for that 
hole. 

If a player play a stroke with his partner's 
ball, and the mistake be discovered and inti- 
mated to the other side before an opponent has 
played another stroke, the player shall be dis- 
qualified for that hole and his partner shall 
drop a ball as near to the spot from which 
the ball was played without penalty. If the 
mistake be not discovered till after the op- 
ponent has played a stroke, the player's side 
loses the hole. 



LAWS OF THE LINKS 61 

In all other cases in which a player, by the 
rules of golf, would incur the loss of the hole, 
he shall be disqualified for that hole, but the 
disqualification does not apply to his partner. 

In conclusion, let us revert once more to the 
fundamental principle of golf, "play the ball 
as it lies," and you will automatically avoid 
nine out of ten of the ordinary transgressions 
of the rules and the spirit of the game. 



INGRIM-RUTLEDGE CO. 
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. 



U-.ll, iq;3 



